BAGHDAD - Britain’s defence secretary said on Monday security had improved in southern Iraq and predicted that formal control of a second province in the region would be handed back to Iraq soon. ‘I recognise there are continuing challenges and I’ve seen some violence over this weekend which suggests there’s much more work to be done,’ Des Browne told a joint news conference with Iraqi Defence Minister Abdul Qader Jassim. ‘But as Prime Minister Maliki said in an interview this weekend, things are improving and the challenge is to maintain that improvement.’British and Iraqi officials have said they expect Dhi Qar province, policed by Italians in the British-led force, to return to formal Iraqi control next month, following the return of neighbouring Muthanna in July. ‘In my estimate Dhi Qar is ready for transition and it should be possible for us now to name a date for that transition,’ Browne told a group of foreign reporters.
Earlier, Jassim told reporters: ‘There was the handing-over of security in al-Samawa (Muthanna province); very soon, God willing, security in Nassiriya will be handed over.’
The Italian government has been planning to withdraw its forces from their base in Nassiriya, capital of Dhi Qar. The handover, following that of Australian- and Japanese-run bases around Samawa in July, would leave 7,000 British troops in charge of the oil city of Basra and the province of Maysan, around the city of Amara, along the southern Iranian border.